8. General David Petaeus painted a
fairly optimistic picture of the Afghanistan War in testimony
to the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday. A good
review of his testimony is here.

9. Portugal's
debt rating was cut (again) by Moody's Investor
Services. Most analysts expect that Portugal will soon be
required to seek a bail-out from its European partners.

10. Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central
Bank, told finance ministers meeting in Brussels yesterday that
the Eurozone's (just agreed-to) package of debt-crisis measures
were
not good enough and would have to be made tougher.

11. The FT
reports: "Federal Reserve officials said the US
economic recovery was on a “firmer footing”, upgrading their
outlook on the back of a gradual improvement in the labor market
but pledging to press on with monetary stimulus as planned."

12. The WSJ
reports: "Lawmakers in Illinois say they may try to fix
the state's ailing pension system by asking current workers to
pay more into the plan, though the approach faces substantial
legal and political obstacles."